Anand first-ever indian to occupy fide top post CHENNAI: Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand became FIDE interim president after its incumbent president Arkady Dvorkovich stepped aside following European Union’s sanction. Now, the attention will turn to FIDE elections. Earlier, Anand had said he won’t contest the elections but he’s expected to make a final call soon | P11 TIRUNELVELI l saturday l july 25, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l CITY EDITION CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Cabinet OKs draft bill on harsher CM-DKS talks on punishment in paper leak cases Cauvery on Aug 3 on the pro-rata water share of the riparian states at the meetAmid Karnataka’s continu- ing to be held on July 28. ous refusal to release the due When contacted, a senior ofshare of Cauvery water to ficial said that Vijay requested Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister C the meeting with the KarnaJoseph Vijay is expected to taka CM. “ of now, the meetAs hold talks with his ing stands,” the offiKarnataka countercial added when asked part D K Shivakumar about the Karnataka in Bengaluru on AuCM’s response. gust 3 to press for the Meanwhile, Agrirelease of water to culture Minister R Visave kuruvai crops in noth on Friday conthe state. firmed the CM’s visit The meeting comes to Karnataka and said against the backdrop CM C Joseph Vijay TN will never allow of the Cauvery Water the neighbouring Management Authority’s state to build a dam at Meke(CWMA) move to defer its deci- datu. “Karnataka has been sion on TN’s request to order saying that as there is no rain, release of water by Karnataka it could not release water (to by a week. The authority at a TN). But Cauvery water is our , meeting held on July 22, said right, and the CM will get it the Cauvery Water Regulation (through talks),” he told Committee (CWRC) will decide reporters in Thanjavur.  P5 T M u r u g a n a n d h a m @ Chennai m u k e s h r a n j a n @ New Delhi THE Union Cabinet on Friday approved a draft bill prescribing harsher punishment for examination paper leaks, hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in a midnight video message that the government would move to tighten the law. The bill amends the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024, and proposes a minimum jail term of five years for those involved in paper leaks, up from the current three years. In cases of organised paper leaks, the punishment could extend to 10 years in prison along with a fine of up to `10 crore, a sharp jump from the existing three to five years’ imprisonment and a minimum fine of `1 crore. The Cabinet meeting, chaired by the Prime Minister at the Parliament House complex, decided that the amended law would target organised gangs and institutions profiting from examination fraud, while shielding ordinary candidates from its harsher provisions. Officials said the government also intends to set up fast- Youth protesting in solidarity with track courts to ensure the CJP’s agitation, in Chennai on speedy trials of the of- Friday | martin louis fenders. The existing law already covers major recruitment and entrance examinations, including the UPSC, SSC, NEET, JEE and CUET. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the bill would be introduced “at the earliest,” adding that the prime minister had directed there be no delay in bringing legislation concerning students. “We are preparing to present the bill... It would not be appropriate to obstruct such a measure,” Rijiju said, while accusing the Congress of trying to disrupt parliamentary proceedings. He warned that any attempt to stall debate on the bill would draw public anger. day’s developments 1 Centre asks GitHub to remove Bitchat, which enables peer-to-peer communication over Bluetooth without mobile networks 2 SC said it will ensure end of ad-hocism in NEET exam system for medical courses, and sought the Centre’s response 3 SC to hear on Monday two pleas alleging police excesses on students during Sansad march on July 20 4 About NTA 47 officials have been sacked ahead of a total overhaul of the testing body 5 Centre directs airlifting of 10 CRPF companies from Chhattisgarh to be deployed in Delhi Govt may not yield on Pradhan’s exit R a j e s h K u m a r T h a k u r a n d A n u p V e r m a @ New Delhi At their second round of talks on Friday, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) told the government that its three demands — exit of Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan, `1 crore compensation for NEET-UG victims, and no legal action against protesters — were nonnegotiable. Union ministers J P Nadda and Dr Jitendra Singh, the interlocutors who spoke to the CJP delegation, said they had heard the demands and will get back on Saturday . The deliberations, described as cordial, reportedly saw the government agree to two demands — adequate J P Nadda after a meeting with a CJP delegation, at Vithalbhai Patel compensation for the families of those who House in New Delhi on Friday | PTI allegedly died by suicide following the paper leak, and the withdrawal of cases against the protesting youth. However, indications are that the government will not ask Pradhan to quit. Instead, it intends to shift the focus towards sweeping reforms of the examination system through legislation and administrative measures. “The priority is to restore confidence of the students by introducing measures to prevent future examination paper leaks, strengthen safeguards within the exam process and ensure those responsible for the leaks are brought to justice,” several well-placed sources said. levy Extended 10% US tariff on India over forced labour concerns PUSHP I TA DE Y @ New Delhi Hours after the 10% temporary tariffs imposed under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 expired, the US on Thursday retained the tariffs on imports from India under Section 301, citing concerns over the country’s enforcement of curbs on forced labour. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the new levy will kick in on Friday . Following the conclusion of Section 301 probe linked to forced labour, the US imposed tariffs on imports from 60 economies. Of these, 17 countries, including India, will face a 10% tariff, while the remaining 43 economies will be subject to a higher levy of 12.5%. The lower tariff band is expected to help the relative competitiveness of Indian exports. ‘OpenAI can use copyrighted content’ UDAYAN K I SHORE @ New Delhi THE Delhi High Court on Friday refused to restrain AI platform ChatGPT from using published news material, saying it does not amount to copyright infringement. In an interim order, Justice Amit Bansal ruled that OpenAI’s use of retrieved copyrighted works to train its LLMs falls under “fair dealing” provision of the Copyright Act. The court was hearing a petition filed by news agency ANI in 2024 against Open AI Inc and Open AI OpCo LLC, raising issues of infringement of its copyrighted material for LLM training. Justice Amit Bansal said prima facie, the outputs generated by ChatGPT did not amount to infringement under Section 51 of the Copyright Act, since the outputs were not substantially similar to ANI’s ‘original literary works’. “Further, ANI failed to satisfy this court that any memorization and regurgitation of ANI’s original literary works has happened through the responses generated by ChatGPT,” he said. The bench said irreparable injury would be caused to OpenAI and to public interest if any interim injunction was granted in favour of ANI at this stage.